This application relates to a drape-shaped glass element which is used as a structural support for other elements, and further to a method of making such a glass element.
Various shapes of glass elements are known in the prior art. The prior art has typically not, however, used glass elements as structural supports for other members, such as a table top.
The methods of forming glass elements known in the prior art typically do not involve manipulating a heated glass member to arrive at complex final shapes. Due to this, it has been generally accepted in the glass industry that a pure glass element cannot be bent into many complex shapes, and that a glass designer is limited in the final shapes available. For this reason various other materials, such as composite plastics, have sometimes been utilized in place of glass to form complex shapes.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to disclose a method and apparatus of forming a glass sheet into a complex shape. More particularly, it is an object of the present invention to disclose a method of forming a glass element which is used as a base to support a table top.